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Articles

From the desk

Plain-English notes on household bandwidth and networking quirks that show up with satellite internet.

Illustration of a rural Midwest home with a rooftop dish under a night sky of satellites, with warm amber and cool cyan beams suggesting prices rising in busy areas and falling where capacity is open.

· Pricing

Starlink dynamic pricing: why your Residential bill could go up or down 20%

Starlink is moving U.S. Residential plans to local, demand-based pricing starting with bills on or after Nov 30, 2026. Reported prices run 20% below to 20% above list. What changed, who’s affected, and what to do.

 Illustration of a dense night-sky Starlink constellation over Earth, with brighter new satellites highlighted and a warm amber glow on a rural home dish below.

· News

Starlink this week: 13.6 million users, faster V3 satellites on deck, and Ukraine’s speeds come back

Starlink news for Oct 19–26, 2026: SpaceX’s Q3 report shows 13.6 million subscribers, the V3-on-Starship plan to add capacity, new Starlink Mobile spectrum, Ukraine’s speed caps lifted, and no U.S. price changes.

 Illustration of two satellites over the night Earth: a warm amber civilian broadband satellite beaming light to a rural home, beside a dark, armored defense satellite in shadow.

· Explainer

Starshield vs Starlink: what’s the difference?

Starlink is SpaceX’s consumer internet; Starshield is its government and military line. How they differ on customers, security, spy satellites, MILNET, and Ukraine, and whether it affects your dish.

 Illustration of an airliner with lit windows flying above moonlit clouds under a satellite trail, with a glowing tropical coastline below.

· News

Starlink this week: an 800 MHz phone play, airline Wi‑Fi goes fleetwide, and Curaçao goes live

Starlink news for Oct 12–19, 2026: SpaceX’s 800 MHz spectrum deal for Starlink Mobile, United and Southwest racing to fleetwide Starlink Wi‑Fi, Curaçao’s launch, India’s status, and what the Ukraine speed-cap story does (and doesn’t) mean for home users.

 Illustration of a glittering arc of low-orbit satellites over the night Earth, beaming down to a phone resting on a porch railing next to a home satellite dish.

· News

What the FCC’s Starlink Mobile satellite approval means for your phone (and your dish)

On Oct 6, 2026 the FCC granted-in-part SpaceX’s separate Starlink Mobile / D2D constellation (DA-26-1078, up to 15,000 VLEO sats). What that means for phone-from-space vs home dish broadband — timelines, caveats, and what residential users should expect.

 Illustration of a lit cabin at night with a rooftop dish and a home media server, linked by a glowing amber arc through a satellite to a distant data center.

· Networking

Using Grok Bot to run WireGuard for Plex over Starlink

Starlink CGNAT blocks inbound Plex. How we used Grok Bot to provision a cheap DigitalOcean WireGuard relay, set a split tunnel on the Plex host with Grok Build, and keep remote access working for about $6/mo.

 Illustration of a rooftop satellite dish at night sending a beam to a satellite, then to a glowing cloud server and on to a distant lit home.

· Networking

How to set up a VPS if you want Plex over Starlink

Starlink residential often uses CGNAT. Learn why upload is the bottleneck for remote Plex, and how a VPS relay with Tailscale or WireGuard can help — high level, no fake prices.